Vacation Day 5, August 5, 2009

Michael would start everyday with a walk. Most days he came back so sweaty it looked like he got rained on. As a matter of fact, he did get rained on once or twice. This morning he decided to take the camera with him on his walk, here are a few pictures of the sights he saw.
He saw lots of iguanas.

A nice picture of the pool.

This statue is located in a shallow part of the pool, it is a dragon with a Mayan warrior in it's mouth?? The lady who did our time share presentation explained this but, I don't think I was paying much attention.

Our adventure for this day was to drive about an 1 1/2 hours away to see some Mayan ruins. Dad being a History teacher, and mom being...well mom, we like to try to find something educational to show our girl when we go on vacation, whenever possible. Amanda being a Photography major was up for taking some cool pictures, Brian is usually up for anything, Hannah on the other hand would rather have nothing to do with an educational adventures. So here we are, before we left don't we look pretty. I even decided to do my hair and put on make up.

After our drive, we had about a quarter mile walk from the parking area to the Mayan Ruins in Tulum.

Tulum means "wall", named this because it is a "walled city". Michael and Hannah are standing in front of one of the entrances to the "Walled City". Notice the half hearted smile on her face.

This is "El Castillo", "the Castle". This building stands at the very top of a bluff overlooking the ocean.

Obviously, the hair being down didn't last long, I think this was by far the hottest day there. Michael looks like someone threw water on him.

If he was young like Brian, he would have taken his shirt off too. Amanda and Brian are standing on the Bluff with the ocean behind them.

I couldn't stand it anymore, and had to sit for a little while, there was a little breeze now and then. Again, notice the expression on Hannah's face, not happy about being there.

This building is called, "Temple of Frescoes". If look closely, the corner has a face carved in it. This is believed to be a god. It was a pretty cool building. Due to deterioration, we couldn't go up to any of the structures, they were roped off. It was a pretty neat place.

On our way back to the parking area we decided to ride this train. You notice Hannah is a lot happier. The train was full when we got on, but a very nice man and his son gave me and Hannah their seats.

This is a picture of "Voladores". This is the information I found on line about them.

Five costumed men recreate a ceremonial ritual first started by the Totonac indians from Veracruz. The flyers begin by climbing the tall pole, then each of four of the men slip a foot into a loop at the end of a rope that is wound around the top of the pole. The fifth team member performs a special dance to each of the four cardinal directions, dancing upon the top of the pole while playing a flute! At the right moment, the four flyers release themselves from the small cap on the pole and fall to earth, circling around the pole in expanding circles as the rope unwinds, eventually touching ground.

This was the only night we didn't eat at the Havana Moon for dinner. We ate at the sushi restaurant this night.

Amanda and Hannah chatting.

Amanda and Hannah with a statue that was in the restaurant. That was pretty much the end to that evening.